On Thursday, OFAC published a settlement with Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas (DBTCA in the settlement notice), involving a civil penalty of $18,900 for 2 violations of Executive Order 13382 (Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation sanctions). In one case, the bank processed a payment that contained Bank Melli London's SWIFT address in the Originator to Beneficiary Information field (SWIFT field 70, for example). In the other, the bank rejected a payment that contained a reference to the country of Iran it should have blocked because of a reference to the Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI).
The base penalty was $35,000. Here's why the discount was so little, in comparison:
OFAC considered the following to be mitigating factors:
DBTCA has not received a penalty notice or Finding of Violation from OFAC in the five years preceding the date of the transactions giving rise to the apparent violations;
and DBTCA took appropriate remedial action in response to these apparent violations.
Although the apparent violations didnot confer an economic benefit on a sanctioned entity, OFAC considered the fact that DBTCA’sactions of improperly rejecting rather than blocking the March 11, 2009, transaction negativelyimpacted the policy objectives of E.O. 13382.
OFAC found the following to be aggravatingfactors in this case:
six low-level DBTCA employees and a senior member of the review teamwho was the final reviewer for escalated OFAC matters were aware of the March 11, 2009,transaction;
DBTCA is a large and commercially sophisticated financial institution;
the bankfailed to include the BIC of the London Branch of Bank Melli in its interdiction software;
and asettlement in this case would demonstrate the necessity of including the BICs of financialinstitutions on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List in interdictionsoftware.
Mitigation was further extended because DBTCA agreed to settle these apparent violations.
Compared to many of the settlements over the last few years, these violations seem almost petty to have resulted in a fine that OFAC would publicize. There certainly appears to have been no systemic effort to evade sanctions.
But it seems that OFAC made an example of Deutsche Bank to make the point about scanning for BICs.
Link:
Posted with BlogsyFiled under: OFAC Updates, Settlements, Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation Sanctions
